KATHPUTLI COLONY AND EWS HOUSING AKANKSHA S.RAO | MRINALINI VERMA | PRATYUSHA HALDER

Kathputli Colony is a colony of street performers in Shadipur Depot area of Delhi. For the last 40 years,

it is home to some 2,800 families of magicians, snake charmers, acrobats, singers, dancers, actors,

traditional healers and musicians and especially puppeteers or kathputli-performers from Rajasthan.

This makes it world’s largest community of street performers.

The colony is undergoing an in situ redevelopment plan by Delhi Development Authority (DDA)

of Government of Delhi.

INTRODUCTION

In the early 1970s, a handful of itinerant performers from Rajasthan settled in West Delhi‟s Shadipur

region. Such artists—primarily puppeteers and musicians—often migrated through the capital, and

Shadipur made a convenient location for commuting to performances across the city. Over time, they

were joined by a variety of artists from states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, and together,

they began to cohere into a single settlement known as Kathputli.

Over the next two decades, the settlement organized around its artistry, forming the Bhule Bhisre

Kalakar Cooperative. With the help of the Asian Heritage Foundation, Kathputli artists found work

through the Sangeet Natak Academy, a performing arts council established by the Indian

government in Delhi.

Around this time, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) began to push for slum resettlement. In 1986,

they proposed the resettlement of Kathputli residents in the South Delhi region of Vasant Kunj. Around

1990, DDA Slum Wing architect Anil Lall drafted more detailed plans for upgradation, according to a

duplex-style housing model. And in 1996, they drafted another proposal for resettlement in Mehrauli,

also located in South Delhi. All of these proposals were rejected on the grounds that neither location

was as centrally located as their current Shadipur settlement.

Finally, following an express inclination toward in-situ rehabilitation of JJ clusters in the Master Plan

2021, the DDA chose Kathputli as the site of its first such project.

BRIEF HISTORY AND CONDITION OF KATHPUTLI COLONY

Early 1970s •Artists from Rajasthan settled in Shadipur

•People from other states also migrated to this settlement

1982 •Kathputli colony gained international recognition

•DDA began to push for slum resettlement

1986 •Proposed resettlement to Vasant Kunj

1990 •Anil Lall drafted more detailed plans for upgradation

However, all these proposals were rejected

In Master Plan 2021, following the in-situ rehabilitation for JJ clusters – Kathputli Colony, the first project

CONDITION OF KATHPUTLI COLONY

DDA REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT

DDA for the first time has launched the "In-Situ

Slum Rehabilitation Scheme" to rehabilitate

slum dwellers. Under the scheme, re-settlement

will be done on the land occupied by JJ

clusters with private partnership. The land will

be sold through the tender process to a

private partner for construction of multi-storey

houses. The first tender was floated to

rehabilitate Kathputli Colony which is one of

Delhi's largest slum clusters and was won in a

competitive open tender process by a Delhi

based developer, Raheja developers Ltd.

Under this scheme, the 2800 families of Kathputli shall be given a new lease of life by providing them the

latest modern apartments with high-end amenities like attached Bath, Toilets & Kitchens, Tiled flooring,

Advanced Fire Detection & Fire Sprinter Systems. Seismic Zone 5 compliant RCC structure designed and

certified by IIT/ other reputed structure MEP consultants.

Till the time these structures are built on site the Kathputli colony residents shall be rehabilitated in a Transit

Camp facility at Anand Parbat barely, 1.8 kms away from the Kathputli Colony. This shall be only for 2-3

years by which time the buildings shall be ready.

All this is being allotted to the Kathputli residents and the costs are borne by the private developer, who in

lieu of this will get a small portion of site for a private development which he can sell in open market to

recover the massive construction costs of 2800 apartments at Kathputli colony and another 2800

independent houses at Transit Camp.

2800 HOUSES

DETAIL OF EACH DWELLING: 30.5 SQM area

OTHER AMENITIES:

PRIMARY SCHOOL

SR. SEC. SCHOOL

MULTI PURPOSE HALL

BASTI VIKAS KENDRA

POLICE STATION

DAIRY

FAIR PRICE SHOP

SHISHU VATIKA

KEROSENE STORE

ROOM AREA : 9SQM

MULTIPURPOSE ROOM : 6.5SQM

BATH : 1.2 SQM

KITCHEN : 3.3 SQM

ELECTRICAL SUBSTATION

FIREFIGHTING

WATER TANKS

INTERNAL ROADS

“Possession of the site

would not be granted till a

provisional transit camp is built by the developer”

DDA REDEVELOPMENT CONTRACT WITH RAHEJA DEVELOPERS

2800 HOUSES

DETAIL OF EACH DWELLING: 30.5 SQM area

ROOM AREA : 9SQM

MULTIPURPOSE ROOM : 6.5SQM

BATH : 1.2 SQM

KITCHEN : 3.3 SQM

DDA REDEVELOPMENT CONTRACT WITH RAHEJA DEVELOPERS

RENDERED VIEW OF PROPOSED IN-SITU REHABILITATION COLONY

The aim is that it should require less

maintenance, while achieving high standards of

parameters such as a quality of life, physical

environment, economic stability, socio-cultural

values and urban sustainability.

The developer has to provide 2800 affordable

units and in return he is given land by DDA to

develop 130 high end residential units and

17000sq.mt commercial area.

clockwise: 1. Proposed rehabilitation colony 2. Proposed high end housing that will be built on land given by DDA to Raheja 3. Community space Kathputli colony

“lit up from the ground, a soaring glass skyscraper with a pool and a plaza, beside which the hazy outlines

of the EWS high-rises are not clearly visible..”

TRANSIT CAMP

LOCATION :

Anand parbat was chosen as the spot for

relocation in march 2011, around five

kilometers from the original settlement

The transit camp itself is situated on an empty

DDA plot with a a ring of settlements around it. It‟s a diverse developmental terrain; almost

every category of DDA settlement—

authorized colony, unauthorized (now

regularized) colony, recognized slum, and JJ

cluster—is represented in the area. On the

Ramjas Grounds landscape, the camp

appears starkly out of place.

The Transit Camp is finally ready to

rehabilitate all 2800 slum dwellers families of

Kathputli Colony.

The camp has various facilities like:

Ultra modern pre fabricated structures

RO filtered drinking water

Wide roads

Electricity

Adequate number of toilet and bathing

facilities

Community facilities

Street lighting

Greenery

STP

Performance & Display Areas

TRANSIT CAMP UNIT :

Ivory single story blocks made up of gypsum

boards

One room , single fan, single electrical outlet

No provision of water inlets and sewage outlets

Portable toilets will be imported by DDA

TRANSIT CAMP

Meanwhile, a group of residents from the

colony, who are opposing the project, said

they wanted plots in the area instead of flats.

“On Tuesday, people from the DDA came to

the colony and tried to issue tokens to people

for relocating to Anand Parbat. This is despite

the Lt-Governor’s order of not using forceful

means. We are not in favour of shifting. We

want the DDA to hand us plots instead,” one

of the pradhans of the area said.

REACTION OF THE KATHPUTLI COLONY DWELLERS